Incorporation of onions or garlic into the diet is believed to provide beneficial therapeutic effects due to the presence of various antioxidants, bioflavanoids and sulfide compounds. However, the presence of sulfide compounds usually is associated with bad breath or halitosis which makes onion or garlic malodor undesirable. It is known that some individuals have particular diets which can result in those individuals having a tendency to suffer from excessive onion or garlic malodor in their breath.
It is known to provide oral care compositions, such as dentifrice, toothpaste, mouthrinse or mouthwash, which have been specially formulated to counteract onion or garlic malodor. A large number of potential active components or blends are known to be incorporated into oral care compositions for this purpose. Nevertheless, there is still a need for more effective oral care compositions and active components for effectively combatting oral malodor from onion or garlic. There is correspondingly a need for further research and development to develop such oral care compositions.
When an oral care composition is being formulated specifically to target oral malodor from onion or garlic, there is a very wide choice of potential active components and component combinations, as well as component amounts. Furthermore, there is often confusion from the user as to whether the malodor reduction is being achieved by odor masking (overwhelming the malodor with another odor) or by elimination or conversion of the malodorous compound into a less malodorous compound, the latter being the preferred means of addressing malodor.
Furthermore, the choice of potential vehicles and other active components for providing efficacy for other technical effects, such as anti-cavity protection, anti-plaque efficacy, and anti-microbial efficacy, is extremely wide.
It is not possible to predict with any degree of certainty how effective any particularly formulated oral care composition may be against oral malodor from onion or garlic. Consequently, each formulation must be individually tested for efficacy against oral malodor from onion or garlic.
Such testing is time consuming, laborious and costly. Furthermore, it is difficult to achieve consistent and robust quantitative results which can be used as a reliable tool during the research and development process.
There is a need for a testing method which can efficiently and reliably test oral care compositions to determine how effective any particularly formulation may be against oral malodor, for example from onion or garlic.
There is also a need for such a testing method which is less time consuming, less laborious and less costly than known testing methods.
Furthermore, there is a need for a testing method which can readily achieve consistent and robust quantitative results which can be used as a reliable tool during the research and development process for the oral care composition having the desired efficacy.